Ekphrasis and the Arts of South Asia

Ekphrasis provides the framework for exploring South Asian literary texts and visual art in this directed reading course. Proceeding from the fundamental understanding of ekphrasis as vivid writing about a work of art, the course thinks more capaciously to consider how South Asian writers and visual artists evoked temple, palace, city, and built worlds, forests and wildernesses, the human body, animals, beasts, and various nonhuman “others,” as well as emotion, affect, and subjectivity. Primary readings span the early and medieval periods to include texts in Sanskrit, Persian, and a number of Indic vernaculars, all in English translation. We read Sanskrit epic and drama—the Ramayana, Meghaduta, Buddhacarita, Shakuntala—the lyric poems of the devotional or Bhakti tradition in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, and Hindi, and the memoirs of Mughal emperors Babur and Jahangir. Literary texts are paired with art historical writings, visits from practicing poets, sound and film clips, and works from the Yale Art Gallery. Our project is to investigate the resources of each medium—writing and visual art—their intersections and overlaps, and the slippages that occur between them. The class includes museum visits, and readings can be adjusted to accommodate the needs/interests of students.

Taught by Subhashini Kaligotla Fall 2019

Course Number: 
HSAR 667